You'd think what you pay her already would be enough. But be careful what you wish for because there are always unforeseen consequences. Maybe one day you'll be eating onion rings and everything will just go black.
I know the tongue is firmly embedded in your cheek, but as one who is often asked by my students,"Hey Mr. you're Italian. Are you in the mafia" I am loathe even to joke about it. These are wiseguys, and I know a few, who looked at my dad going to work as a construction worker every day and thought or said, "Hey Tony what a sucker you are." They prey on the weakness of others,scorn the world of work, and glory in Puzo's and Coppola's glowing homages. We have a word for them. They are 'schifoza' and I want nothing whatever to do for them or them for me.
Of course I apologize for any offense I've caused, albeit indirectly. I can offer you this quote from my original mobbed up union leader proposal, which perhaps I should have included here:
...please don't lecture me about discrimination, because mobs now come from all over. I've got nothing against Asian, Russian, or South American mobs in our corner. Race is not an issue, and it's utterly beside the point. One mobster is as good as another, say I.
And perhaps you're both right that getting mobbed up is not precisely an ideal solution. But what can we do?
I think it's great that the health care workers unionized. But we get 28,000 more UFT members, further diluting the strength of teachers in a union that's so entrenched most teachers already don't even bother to vote.
I'm willing to drop this proposal altogether, if need be. But I'd very much like to see a better one.
When will people learn that children are not widgets? The merit pay scheme that is to be implemented is a grave mistake and a total step backward for this union.
Yes, NYC Educator, it is extortion (over 3 grand, how sad). I feel for those schools that accept the offer. But given that their failure to accept the offer may be the last nail in their grave in terms of closing/phasing-out schools, compounds the extortion impact.
Shameful. I now cringe every time I enter the DA and see their show at work. I've stopped sitting near my district CLs and DR. It's too disgusting to watch them hustle the CLs to stand up and fight for Unity proposals.
Uhmmm. This comment may be a bit off topic. Sorry for that.
A better proposal, though not one with a real possibility of success. Get the ball moving on a decertification vote. Take all of the verifiable complaints registered here and elsewhere and pound the membership with the message that they have been, are being, and will be sold out for the purpose of enhancing the upward mobility of our leadership.Attack the leadership with every element of Landrum Griffith. Make them answer the phone calls, letters and hopefully subpoenas from the NLRB.
Decertification? Here's where we may part viewpoints--I absolutely believe union is the only way for working people to face folks like Mayor Mike. I'm gravely upset, of course, that Ms. Weingarten is so in cahoots with this administration that she's done little but worsen working conditions for teachers to procure compensation increases that consistently failed to meet cost of living.
I'm very upset that she presented time-for-money swaps as "raises," treating us like a bunch of rubes, but she seems to have gotten away with it. Most teachers don't even bother to vote. I'm consistently amazed that no one raises a fuss.
I posted a bunch of allegations someone had sent me before the election:
http://nyceducator.com/2007/03/p...r-
corrupts.html
Unity head Jeff Zahler denied it, but provided no specifics. I was able to verify some, but not all of these accusations. Some appeared in the NY Post, some were common knowledge, and the UFT failed to refute a single allegation. Perhaps Mr. Zahler felt we should take him at his word.
These folks live in a bubble, surrounded by people paid to believe what they believe. They are incapable of sustained debate, thinking they're above it all. But the world is not like the Unity/New Action DA, and that's why they fail regularly to negotiate successfully.
And why should they? They have 40 million bucks a year to spend on patronage and a rank and file that's too lazy to fill out a ballot, for the most part.
So, hypothetically, what do you think would take the place of the UFT as a bargaining unit if it were to be decertified?
Check out this article in Thursday's NY Times about the chancellor starting a new unit with five lawyers whose sole goal is specifically is to remove "bad" teachers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/1...ion&
oref=slogin
This is scary, scary stuff!
A short quote from the article:
The plans, at a cost of $1 million a year, are described in a memo and an accompanying letter to principals from Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein. In the letter, he urged principals to help teachers improve but added, “When action must be taken, the disciplinary system for tenured teachers is so time-consuming and burdensome that what is already a stressful task becomes so onerous that relatively few principals are willing to tackle it. As a result, in a typical year only about one-hundredth of 1 percent of tenured teachers are removed for ineffective performance.
“This issue simply must be tackled,” he wrote.
In the memo, Dan Weisberg, the Education Department’s chief executive for labor policy and implementation, wrote that the Teacher Performance Unit “represents a significant infusion of resources that will ensure we have the capacity to seek the removal of all ineffective tenured teachers who, in spite of receiving the time and support sufficient to allow them to substantially improve, won’t or can’t do it.”
The unit, Mr. Weisberg wrote, “will also allow us to seek discipline where appropriate in a wider range of cases than before.” The unit is being run by Florence Chapin, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney.
It makes sense that before he leaves office, Klein wants a way to fire teachers. If they are incompetent, fine, but knowing him (and now Randi) due process will not be in the picture and I am sure many good teachers will be on the firing line because they refuse to tow the line.
Everyone is in a lather about removing "bad" - define "bad" teachers while there's not much said about bad doctors or bad cops, both of whom can actually kil people. Did you see the story today about the doctor who potentially infected 600 patients with hepatitus C but kep his license? Don't we hear all the time how defendents who can afford expensive lawyers have a better chance to get off? Well, how come all the inexpensive lawyers (read "bad") are not in rubber rooms with the doctor?
There will always be great, good, average, below average and bad teachers - when they fire the "bad" ones there's an excellent chance they will be replaced by worse.
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